Articles Posted inTax evasion

According to a list by Oxfam, a charitable organization that works to alleviate global poverty, Bermuda is the worst corporate tax haven in the world. Joining Bermuda on this list are fourteen other tax havens, which include the Cayman Islands and British Virgin Islands. But, what makes Bermuda stand out among the others noted on this list?

Creating The List

Oxfam did not take the creation of this list lightly. In order to determine the tax havens that belonged on the list, Oxfam carefully researched numerous factors, including the presence of exceptionally low or nonexistent corporate tax rates and unfair tax incentives. Oxfam also took into consideration the cooperation, or lack of cooperation, of these tax havens in regards to international regulations designed to combat tax evasion. During its extensive research, Oxfam found that Bermuda and other British territories were among the worst tax havens in the world. This is especially true when considering the United State’s use of these tax havens.

Bermuda was placed on an updated blacklist as a non-cooperative tax jurisdiction by the European Union. The EU hopes that this will inspire Bermuda, as well the other captive domiciles on the list, to take the concept of tax evasion and avoidance seriously, and keep globe financial in order.

Bermuda is listed alongside Aruba, Barbados, Guam, Vanuatu, and the US Virgin Islands. The creation of the updated EU blacklist was a result of a European Commission directed research and investigation. This time there were 10 new countries added to the updated list, which means 15 total jurisdictions are currently on it.

The general criteria for the EU blacklist involves three things. The first was tax transparency, which makes all financial actions easily visible in order to avoid any chance of hidden corruption. The second is good governance that will assure all financial actions are being monitored efficiently by a selected party. The third is the rate of economic activity and the verification of that activity to assure that there is a real, steady, and prospering economic flow.

Reports from London have shown that nearly a third of the billionaires located in Britain plan to or have already moved to areas considered tax havens. In addition to this sudden shift, there is also talk of an investigation into political party bankrolling from those that have chosen to relocate, as well as the delay in a vote involving the end of secret company ownership in offshore territories.

According to the Times news, 28 out of the 93 recorded British billionaires have been found through public record to have moved or been in the process of moving to a tax haven within the last decade.

Tax havens are locations in the world in which taxation is extremely light or sometimes even non-existent. Examples of these are the Channel Islands or countries like Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates that pay little to no tax.

Mental health company owner, Catinia Denise Farrington of Cyprus, Texas, pleaded guilty to health care fraud and tax evasion in September of 2018. As of March 1st, 2019, she has been sentenced to 60 months in prison after profiting $4 million from Medicaid and just under $400,000 from her tax evasion scheme.

Health Care Fraud Conspiracy

According to prosecutors, Farrington owned a mental health care company out of North Carolina, Durham County Mental Health and Behavioral Health Services, LLC. Through this company, she submitted thousands of fraudulent claims to Medicaid for services that were never performed. These incidents occurred between 2011 and 2015, but this is not the only fraudulent activity that Farrington participated in during this time.

Google, a renowned international technology company, was found to be using a Dutch shell company in order to reduce its foreign tax bill in 2017 by shifting $24 billion, 19.9 billion euros, of its revenue from royalties to Bermuda. The amount shifted in 2017 through the Netherlands was 4 billion euros more than what was documented in 2016. This information is according to documents filed at the Dutch Chamber of Commerce.

To further explain how this worked, Google used the subsidiary in the Netherlands, Google Netherlands Holdings BV, to shift their revenue made outside of the United States, their home country, to an affiliated base in Bermuda, which is essentially a known tax haven where companies are not required to pay an income tax. This base is called Google Ireland Holdings, and the tax strategy used here is known as the “Double Irish, Dutch Sandwich”. Surprisingly, this is a legal strategy which has allowed Google, who is owned by Alphabet, to avoid US income taxes and European withholding taxes, saving a large portion of their overseas profits.

The Sackler family empire comprises Purdue in America, Napp in Britain, and Mundipharma in Europe and Australasia. The companies have helped amass a £10 billion fortune, protected, in part, by the tax haven of Bermuda.

The Evening Standard in the UK released a report detailing that while their opioid painkillers are manufactured in Cambridge, the Caribbean is actually the heart of the Sacklers’ tax avoidance strategy. They report the Sackler family has allegedly diverted billions of pounds in profit to Bermuda to avoid paying millions in taxes that would have been due to the UK or Europe.

After a lawsuit was filed against investigative journalist, Pelin Ünker, for her reporting on the Paradise Papers, an Istanbul court has found her guilty of defaming Turkey’s former Prime Minister, Binali Yildirim. For speaking against Yildirim and reporting on his confirmed offshore activities, Ünker has been sentenced to thirteen months in jail and a substantial fee. However, this unjust ruling is truly unique, as it appears to have involved several political motivations in an effort to send a message to other Turkish journalists and silence similar reports in the future.

The Paradise Papers

But, what exactly are the Paradise Papers? The Paradise Papers are essentially a vast collection of leaked documents including emails, deeds, loan agreements, financial statements, and additional documents that reveal how several politicians, celebrities, and entire corporations stored hidden profits in offshore tax havens. The documents were initially leaked to a German newspaper from offshore service providers. However, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) agreed to review the documents before publishing any written work on the released documents. This movement brought together the investigative journalists and media partners of six continents; Pelin Ünker was one of these journalists.

Sprint will pay $330 million to settle a False Claims Act case filed by the New York Attorney General alleging that Sprint knowingly failed to collect and remit more than $100 million in state and local sales taxes owed on its flat-rate wireless calling plans sold to New Yorkers. The $330 million recovery is not only the largest-ever recovery by the New York Attorney General resulting from an action filed under the New York False Claims Act, but it is the largest-ever recovery by a single state in an action brought under a state false claims act.

“Sprint knew exactly how New York sales tax law applied to its plans – yet for years the company flagrantly broke the law, cheating the state and its localities out of tax dollars that should have been invested in our communities,” said Attorney General Underwood. “Now, Sprint will pay the price with this record-setting settlement. This should serve as a clear reminder that the New York False Claims Act protects New Yorkers from companies that attempt to flout their obligations under New York tax law.”

The $330 million settlement announced today resolves this tax enforcement action under the New York False Claims Act brought by the Attorney General. At least twenty-nine states, the District of Columbia, and the federal government have passed False Claims Acts, laws which allow whistleblowers and the government to recover treble damages from companies or individuals that defraud the government. However, only the New York False Claims Act broadly covers all types of tax fraud.

Swirling around in the media and online is a leak of financial documents called The Paradise Papers. Within the terabits of information lies the documented offshore accounts of politicians, celebrities, multinational corporations and even royalty. There is something else buried in the data according to The Gateway—money laundering and tax evasion.

A Greenwich, Connecticut business executive was sentenced to six months in prison today for failing to report over $28 million in funds he maintained in Swiss bank accounts to the Department of Treasury, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman of the Justice Department’s Tax Division, U.S. Attorney Dana J. Boente for the Eastern District of Virginia, and Chief Don Fort, IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS CI). In pronouncing the sentence, U.S. District Court Judge Brinkema took into consideration Kim’s cooperation with the government, which occurred for more than a five-year span. Hyong Kwon Kim, a citizen of South Korea and, since 1998, a legal permanent resident of the United States, resided in Massachusetts and later in Connecticut. Kim, a sophisticated business executive who ran family businesses with operations in the United States and internationally, inherited tens of millions of dollars that he stashed in secret accounts at Credit Suisse, its subsidiaries, and another Swiss bank. Kim deliberately violated the U.S. bank secrecy laws by failing to report his foreign financial accounts to the Treasury Department. U.S. citizens, resident aliens, and permanent legal residents with a foreign financial interest in or signatory authority over a foreign financial account worth more than $10,000 are required to file a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts, commonly known as an FBAR, disclosing the account.

Kim conspired with a host of foreign enablers, including Dr. Edgar H. Paltzer, his Swiss attorney who pleaded guilty in 2013 in the Southern District of New York, and bankers to conceal his assets and income in Swiss accounts held in his own name, the name of a relative, and in the names of sham corporate entities. Kim schemed with Paltzer and his bankers to structure financial transactions in a manner that allowed him to utilize the funds in the United States, while concealing his ownership and control of the offshore funds. For example, Kim had checks issued to third parties in the United States in order to purchase a luxury home in Greenwich, Connecticut, a waterfront vacation retreat in Chatham, Massachusetts, and jewelry adorned with multi-carat diamonds, emeralds, and rubies. In order to conceal his ownership of the vacation home, Kim and Paltzer created a sham entity to hold title to the home. Kim and Paltzer acted as if Kim rented the home from a fictitious owner.

In 2008, as Credit Suisse closed accounts held in the names of sham entities owned by persons residing in the United States, Kim refused to bring his assets to the United States. Instead, he transferred his assets to another Swiss bank. Kim sent coded messages from the United States to his Swiss banker in order to maintain control of his account.